A moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries and changes to the language would tighten the city’s grip on the trade.

ANDREA GOODELL

KEY ACTION:
A moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries and changes to the language would tighten the city’s grip on the trade.

DISCUSSION:
The new, extended moratorium allows one caregiver in his or her “principal residence” to be excluded from the temporary ban on dispensaries.

“This is really an attempt to narrow even more than the initial moratorium did where this kind of activity might pop up,” Community and Neighborhood Services Director Phil Meyer said.

The city is working with Holland Township to work out the best zoning and other regulations to handle medical marijuana in their communities.

Holland’s moratorium would have expired Feb. 25, but would be extended through May following a vote of the city council.
“These are complex questions, and I think they require consideration,” said Lindell Herrick, who works in substance abuse prevention.

Medical marijuana advocate Amy Gassaway appealed to the city to hold off on any laws that could potentially land the medical marijuana community in the middle of an expensive court case. She would rather see an extended moratorium.

“We don’t need to waste more of our community dollars on this subject,” she said in a letter to the planning commission. “Let’s let the other communities that choose to spend their tax dollars on this find the answers the hard way.”

The city hopes to achieve those goals through neighborhood identity, master planning and zoning, property maintenance and management, good neighbor programs and building and site construction.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION:
• The commission scheduled two public hearings for Feb. 8: text amendment to allow for increased temporary free standing signs and a request to rezone 192 E. 32nd St. from R-1 to C-1.